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"Among those human beings, the ten courses of action (see AN 10.176) will have entirely disappeared... The word 'skillful' will not exist, so from where will there be anyone who does what is skillful? Those who lack the honorable qualities of motherhood, fatherhood, contemplative-hood, & brahman-hood will be the ones who receive homage... Fierce hatred will arise, fierce malevolence, fierce rage, & murderous thoughts: mother for child, child for mother, father for child, child for father, brother for sister, sister for brother." Ultimately, conditions will deteriorate to the point of a "sword-interval," in which swords appear in the hands of all human beings, and they hunt one another like game.

"And what constitutes a monk's strength? There is the case where a monk, through the ending of the mental fermentation's, enters & remains in the fermentation-free awareness-release & discernment-release, having directly known & realized them for himself right in the here & now. This constitutes a monk's strength.

"Monks, I don't envision any other single strength so hard to overcome as this: the strength of Mara. [3] And the adopting of skillful qualities is what causes this merit to increase." [4]

↑This last passage is related to the opening passage of the sutta, in which the Buddha says, "Wander, monks, in your proper range, your own ancestral territory. When one wanders in his proper range, his own ancestral territory, Mara gains no opening, Mara gains no foothold. And it is because of adopting skillful qualities that this merit increases." See also SN 47.6-7.

↑This is the refrain repeated with each stage in the account of how humanlife will improve in the aftermath of the sword-interval. Here, "merit" seems to have the meaning it has in Iti 22: "Don't be afraid of acts of merit." This is another way of saying what is blissful, desirable, pleasing, endearing, charming — i.e., acts of merit.

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